In this book a new phenomenological approach to brittle medium fracture initiation under shock pulses is developped. It provides an opportunity to estimate fracture of media with and without macrodefects. A qualitative explanation is thus obtained for a number of principally important effects of high-speed dynamic fracture that cannot be clarified within the framework of previous approaches. It is possible to apply this new strategy to resolve applied problems of disintegration, erosion, and dynamic strength determination of structural materials. Specialists can use the methods described to...